The seasons cycled through their eternal dance as Leo's training intensified. Summer heat gave way to autumn chill, winter's bite, spring's renewal, and back to summer again. A full year had passed since he'd first stumbled into this cave of torment and transformation.
"Again!" Old Stone barked as Leo completed his four-hundredth Earth Spike in succession, sweat pouring down his face despite the cool cave air.
Leo didn't argue anymore. He simply adjusted his stance and executed the spell once more, feeling the familiar pull on his mana reserves as the ground erupted in a perfect line of deadly spikes.
"Better," Old Stone grudgingly admitted. "Your control has improved."
It was the closest thing to praise Leo had received in months. At seventh level apprentice now, his mana pool had increased from when he'd arrived. The six core earth spells that had once seemed so difficult now responded to his will like extensions of his body. They were Earth wall, Stone skin, Earth bullet, Earth spike, Earth armor and Earth shakles.
"Earth Armor," Leo murmured, feeling the comforting weight of stone encase his body, perfectly balanced and distributed. No longer did the armor's weight hinder his movement—he'd learned to channel mana through specific pathways, creating a perfect symbiosis between flesh and stone.
"Your Earth Shackles actually hold something now," Old Water commented dryly as Leo demonstrated by instantly immobilizing a boulder he'd hurled into the air. "Though they'd still break against any decent opponent."
Leo dismissed the spell with a flick of his wrist. "I'll keep working on it."
"No time," Old Wind cut in, his voice unusually serious. "The test approaches."
Leo's stomach tightened. For weeks now, the three ancient spirits had been growing increasingly agitated, exchanging meaningful glances whenever they thought he wasn't looking.
"What test?" Leo asked for perhaps the twentieth time. "If I'm to prepare—"
"Prepare?" Old Stone's laughter rumbled like an avalanche. "This isn't something you prepare for, boy. It's life or death. Simple as that."
"But what will I face?" Leo pressed.
Old Stone's presence seemed to darken the cave. "Me."
Leo's blood ran cold. "You? But how—"
"Three days," Old Stone interrupted. "Rest well. Eat well. Then we'll see if this year was wasted on you."
Three days vanished like smoke. Leo spent them in meditation, conserving mana and focusing his mind for whatever challenge awaited. When the final morning arrived, he entered the central chamber of the cave to find it transformed.
The familiar space had expanded impossibly, now resembling a big arena with rough stone walls rising thirty feet on all sides. Old Water and Old Wind hovered at the edges, their spectral forms unusually subdued. Only Old Stone remained in the center, his presence more solid than Leo had ever seen it.
"Begin," Old Stone commanded, and the ground beneath him trembled.
Particles of earth, rock, and crystal swirled upward, coalescing into a humanoid shape that towered over Leo. Seven feet tall with broad shoulders and limbs thick as tree trunks, the earth golem's surface hardened into a polished sheen. Most disturbing were its eyes—glowing with the same consciousness Leo recognized in Old Stone himself.
"The rules are simple," Old Stone's voice echoed. "Defeat my creation or die trying. This golem possesses the same magical capacity as you—seventh level apprentice earth mage."
Leo's mouth went dry. "It knows all my spells?"
"Every one," Old Stone confirmed with what sounded like cruel satisfaction. "And unlike you, it won't tire or bleed."
The golem raised a massive arm, and Leo barely had time to dodge as an Earth Spike erupted where he'd been standing. The creature moved with surprising speed for something weighing half a ton.
"I can't beat it in close combat," Leo muttered, quickly casting Stone Skin as a defensive measure.
The golem responded by forming Earth Armor around itself, the additional layers making it even more imposing. Its steps shook the ground as it advanced.
Leo launched an Earth Bullet, watching in dismay as it merely chipped the golem's shoulder. The creature didn't even flinch. He tried Earth Shackles next, but the golem simply pulled free, the stone restraints crumbling beneath its strength.
"Think, think," Leo whispered, narrowly avoiding another attack that sent fragments of stone flying across the arena. His heart hammered against his ribs. This wasn't just a test—it was a death match against an opponent with all his abilities but none of his weaknesses.
The golem charged again, its massive fist connecting with Leo's hastily erected Earth Wall. The barrier shattered like glass, and Leo flew backward, pain exploding across his chest.
"Your spells lack conviction," Old Stone's voice mocked from everywhere and nowhere.
Leo scrambled to his feet, blood trickling from his lip. The golem was already closing in again, each footfall sending tremors through the arena floor.
"I can't outmuscle it," Leo muttered, his mind racing. "But maybe I don't need to."
He cast Earth Bullet after Earth Bullet, not aiming to damage but to test the golem's reactions. Each time, the creature moved predictably—shifting weight to its right leg before countering. A pattern. Something he could exploit.
Leo feinted left, then right, watching how the golem tracked his movements. It was powerful but followed programmed responses. It couldn't improvise.
"Intelligence," Leo whispered. "That's my advantage."
The next exchange left him sprawled on the ground, ribs cracking under the golem's punishing blow. Leo coughed blood but forced himself up, limping in a wide circle.
"Giving up already?" Old Wind called from the sidelines.
"Not even close," Leo gasped, formulating his plan.
He baited the golem toward the arena's eastern edge, letting it think he was cornered. As it lunged, Leo slipped aside and cast Earth Wall—not in front, but behind the golem. Before it could turn, he cast another to its right, then left, boxing it in.
The golem smashed against the barriers, but Leo kept reinforcing them, pouring mana into the walls faster than they could be broken.
"Now!" Leo shouted, focusing every ounce of remaining energy into a single Earth Spike—not from below, but angled downward from the top of his wall prison, aimed directly at the glowing core in the golem's chest.
The spike pierced through, enhanced by Leo's full magic strength. The golem's movements stuttered as cracks spread across its body from the impact point.
Victory flashed in Leo's eyes—then vanished as the dying golem's hand shot out with impossible speed, seizing his leg. Stone fingers contracted with crushing force.
Leo screamed as bones splintered and flesh pulped beneath the golem's final, spiteful grip. Even as the construct crumbled to earth, its hand remained locked around Leo's ruined leg, the limb nothing more than bloody pulp below the knee.
Darkness claimed him as Old Water's cool presence approached.
"He passed," was the last thing Leo heard before consciousness fled.
Seven days of agony followed. The spirits worked in shifts, Old Water's healing energies knitting bone and regenerating muscle while Old Stone reinforced the structure and Old Wind purified the wounds.